Return to sles15_install.frag CVS log

Up to [LON-CAPA] / doc / build

- An additional action is available when running set up script (install.pl).
- Replace non-functional help link with suggestion to email helpdesk.

<h1>Installing LON-CAPA on a minimal SuSE Linux Enterprise Server (SLES) 15</h1>
<p>
This document guides you through the process of setting up a new LON-CAPA
server running SuSE Linux Enterprise Server 15 (SLES 15) with a minimum of packages installed.
The computer will be configured solely as a LON-CAPA server and will be
expected to have no other services running.  Your server is expected to have
a reasonably fast connection to the internet.
</p><p>
More information is available at
<a href="http://install.lon-capa.org/">http://install.lon-capa.org/</a>.
</p>

<h2>Before you begin</h2>
<p>
Installing Linux is straightforward.
You will be required to log in to the machine and execute
some routine Unix commands.  Familiarity with the Apache web server, mod_perl,
perl, and MySQL are not required to install and run LON-CAPA.
</p>

<h2>Installation Overview</h2>
<p>
The installation process takes the following steps:
</p>
<ol>
  <li><a href="#obt">Obtain SLES 15 installation media</a></li>
  <li><a href="#net">Determine Network Settings</a></li>
  <li><a href="#lin">Install SLES 15</a></li>
  <li><a href="#upd">Update your system</a></li>
  <li><a href="#ilc">Install LON-CAPA</a></li>
  <li><a href="#cdc">Create a Domain Coordinator</a></li>
  <li><a href="#sts">Start/Restart services</a></li>
  <li><a href="#log">Log in to LON-CAPA</a></li>
</ol>

<hr>
<h2>1. <a name="obt">Obtain SuSE Linux Enterprise Server 15</a></h2>
<p>
SLES15 ISO files can be obtained from the SuSE site: <a href="https://www.suse.com/download/sles/">https://www.suse.com/download/sles/</a>. Download either the SLE-15-SP6-Full-x86_64-GM-Media1.iso or the SLE-15-SP6-Online-x86_64-GM-Media1.iso.
</p>

<h2>2. <a name="net">Determine Network Settings</a></h2>
<p>
You will need to know the following network settings for your installation.
<b>Note:</b>You must have a static IP address to use LON-CAPA.
DHCP is <em>not</em> supported.
</p>
<ul>
  <li>ip address </li>
  <li>netmask </li>
  <li>hostname </li>
  <li>gateway </li>
  <li>domain name server(s) </li>
</ul>

<h2>3. <a name="lin">Minimal SLES 15 Install</a></h2>
<p>
Installing SuSE Linux Enterprise Server is straightforward.
Some documentation is available from
<a href="https://documentation.suse.com/sles/15-SP6/pdf/article-installation_en.pdf">
https://documentation.suse.com/sles/15-SP6/pdf/article-installation_en.pdf</a>.<br /><br />
Most of the installation screens are self explanatory.
There are a few steps that require comment and are dealt with below.
</p>
<dl style="list-style:square outside none">
   <dt>Installation Language</dt>
   <dd>Use English as your installation language.</dd>
   <dt>Partitioning your Drive</dt>
   <dd>For a LON-CAPA library server (i.e., the main server used
       for permanent storage of course and user data),
       a separate partition is recommended for /home, as this
       simplifies future upgrades of the operating system.
       If you are adding an additional access server to an
       existing LON-CAPA domain, this does not apply as no
       permanent data are stored on an access server.
       As LON-CAPA resource files are stored in the /home directory,
       the majority of the disk space should be allocated here.
       If you have 20 GB of space for SLES15, /home should
       receive at least 10 to 12 GB. Since MySQL uses the /var
       filesystem to store its databases you should have as least
       4 gigs of space available on /var.  Be sure to
       include adequate swap space.  A minimum is 512 MB, but you should
       typically have 1 or 2x as much swap space as you do physical RAM.
       </dd>
   <dt>Network Configuration</dt>
   <dd>LON-CAPA will <b>not</b> work with a machine set up to use a dynamic
       IP address.  When configuring your network card, you should include you static IP address, netmask, host name information (e.g., host name = tmp1, domain = lite.msu.edu), as well as name servers and gateway.
   </dd>
   <dt>Available Extensions and Modules</dt>
   <dd>Check the boxes for the following:<ul>
       <li>SUSE Package Hub</i> 
       <li>Basesystem Module</li>
       <li>Desktop Applications</li>
       <li>Development Tools</li>
       <li>Server Applications</li>
       </ul>
   </dd>
   <dt>System Role</dt>
   <dd>Select: Minimal</dd>
   <dt>Software Selection</dt>
   <dd>Check the boxes for the following:<ul>
       <li>Help and Support Documentation</li>
       <li>Minimal Base System</li>
       <li>App Armor</li>
       <li>YaST base utiities</li>
       >li>YasT server utilities</li>
       </ul>
   </dd>
   <dt>Security</dt>
   <dd>If you will need command line access other than via the console, click the link to toggle the setting for the SSH port so it will be open</dd>
</dl>
<p>
Finish installing your server, reboot and log in as root.
</p>
<h3>Firewall Configuration</h3>
<p>
Execute:
</p>
<pre>
yast
</pre>
Use "Security and Users" -> Firewall -> Zones -> public to enable access to standard web server ports for http and https.
</p>
<h2>4. <a name="upd">Add software sources</a></h2>
<p>
Use zypper to add package repositories for LON-CAPA and the statistics package: R.<br />
Execute:
</p>
<pre>
zypper addrepo http://install.loncapa.org/suse/sles15/ 'LON-CAPA'
zypper addrepo 'https://download.opensuse.org/repositories/devel:/languages:/R:/released/SLE_15/' 'R-released SLE_15'
zypper refresh 
</pre>
<p>
Verify the required repositories are enabled:
</p>
<pre>
zypper lr -E
</pre>
<p>
The list of enabled repos should be as follows:
</p>
<table style="border: 0px; border-collapse: collapse;">
<tr><th>Alias</th><th>Name</th></tr>
<tr><td>Basesystem_Module_15_SP6_x86_64:SLE-Module-Basesystem15-SP6-Pool</td><td>SLE-Module-Basesystem15-SP6-Pool</td></tr>
<tr><td>Basesystem_Module_15_SP6_x86_64:SLE-Module-Basesystem15-SP6-Updates</td><td>SLE-Module-Basesystem15-SP6-Updates</td></tr>
<tr><td>Desktop_Applications_Module_15_SP6_x86_64:SLE-Module-Desktop-Applications15-SP6-Pool</td><td>SLE-Module-Desktop-Applications15-SP6-Pool</td></tr>
<tr><td>Desktop_Applications_Module_15_SP6_x86_64:SLE-Module-Desktop-Applications15-SP6-Updates</td><td>SLE-Module-Desktop-Applications15-SP6-Updates</td></tr>
<tr><td>Development_Tools_Module_15_SP6_x86_64:SLE-Module-DevTools15-SP6-Pool</td><td>SLE-Module-DevTools15-SP6-Pool</td></tr>
<tr><td>Development_Tools_Module_15_SP6_x86_64:SLE-Module-DevTools15-SP6-Updates</td><td>SLE-Module-DevTools15-SP6-Updates</td></tr>
<tr><td>LON-CAPA</td><td>LON-CAPA</td></tr>
<tr><td>R-released SLE_15</td><td>R-released SLE_15</td></tr>
<tr><td>SUSE_Linux_Enterprise_Server_15_SP6_x86_64:SLE-Product-SLES15-SP6-Pool</td><td>SLE-Product-SLES15-SP6-Pool</td></tr>
<tr><td>SUSE_Linux_Enterprise_Server_15_SP6_x86_64:SLE-Product-SLES15-SP6-Updates</td><td>SLE-Product-SLES15-SP6-Updates</td></tr>
<tr><td>SUSE_Package_Hub_15_SP6_x86_64:SLE-Module-Packagehub-Subpackages15-SP6-Pool</td><td>SLE-Module-Packagehub-Subpackages15-SP6-Pool</td></tr>
<tr><td>SUSE_Package_Hub_15_SP6_x86_64:SLE-Module-Packagehub-Subpackages15-SP6-Updates</td><td>SLE-Module-Packagehub-Subpackages15-SP6-Updates</td></tr>
<tr><td>SUSE_Package_Hub_15_SP6_x86_64:SUSE-PackageHub-15-SP6-Backports-Pool</td><td>SUSE-PackageHub-15-SP6-Backports-Pool</td></tr>
<tr><td>SUSE_Package_Hub_15_SP6_x86_64:SUSE-PackageHub-15-SP6-Pool</td><td>SUSE-PackageHub-15-SP6-Pool</td></tr>
<tr><td>Server_Applications_Module_15_SP6_x86_64:SLE-Module-Server-Applications15-SP6-Pool</td><td>SLE-Module-Server-Applications15-SP6-Pool</td></tr>
<tr><td>Server_Applications_Module_15_SP6_x86_64:SLE-Module-Server-Applications15-SP6-Updates</td><td>SLE-Module-Server-Applications15-SP6-Updates</td></tr>
</table>
<h2>5. <a name="ilc">Installing LON-CAPA</a></h2>
<h3>Install prerequisites</h3>
<p> Execute: </p>
<pre>
zypper in LONCAPA-prerequisites
</pre>
<p>
This may take some minutes due to LON-CAPA's large number of dependencies.
</p>
<h3>Retrieve and execute LON-CAPA setup program</h3>
<p>
Retrieve the LON-CAPA setup with one of the following commands:
</p>
<pre>
wget http://install.loncapa.org/linux/install.tar
</pre>
<p>
Extract the archive with the following command:
</p>
<pre>
tar xf install.tar
</pre>
<p>
This creates a directory named <tt>installation</tt>.  Change to it and
execute the setup script with the following commands:
</p>
<pre>
cd installation
./install.pl
</pre>
<p>
The script is used to prepare a Linux system to run LON-CAPA, and can also be
used to check the configuration of a system on which LON-CAPA has already been installed.  Typically, though, you will run this script only once, when you first install LON-CAPA.
</p>
<p>
The script will analyze your system to determine which actions are recommended.  The script will then prompt you to choose the actions you would like taken.
Once a choice has been entered for all ten possible actions, required changes will be made.
</p>
<p>The possible actions are:
<ul>
<li>Create the www user/group</li>
<li>Install the package LON-CAPA uses to authenticate users.</li>
<li>Set-up the MySQL database</li>
<li>Set-up MySQL permissions</li>
<li>Configure Apache web server</li>
<li>Configure systemd security settings for Apache web server</li>
<li>Configure start-up of services</li>
<li>Check firewall settings</li>
<li>Stop services not used by LON-CAPA<br />
    e.g., services for a print server: cups daemon</li>
<li>Download LON-CAPA source code in readiness for installation</li>
</ul>
</p>

<h3>Determine LON-CAPA Settings</h3>
<p>
LON-CAPA requires a number of identifying parameters to be set in order
for it to function at all.  Below is a list with descriptions.
</p>
<dl>
  <dt>Host Type (library or access)</dt>
  <dd>The server must be designated a 'library' or an 'access' server.  In
      general you should have a library server for your instructors to create
      their course content on and run their courses.  Students should connect
      to access servers.  If you are doing the first install of LON-CAPA at
      your site, or if you are playing with it for your own edification you
      should make your machine a 'library' server.</dd>
  <dt>LON-CAPA domain</dt>
  <dd>Each site or school which installs LON-CAPA needs its own domain.
      Here at MSU we use 'msu'.  You should choose something short but
      meaningful.  <i>Restriction: one word. Permitted characters 
      (lower case preferred) are letters and numbers and . and - </i> 
  </dd>
  <dt>LON-CAPA host id</dt>
  <dd>Each LON-CAPA server requires a unique internal name.  We use names
      such as "msul1" for the first library server. <i>Restriction: One word.
      Permitted characters (lower case preferred) are letters and numbers and . and -
      </i>
  </dd>
  <dt>Host administrator email</dt>
  <dd>The amount of email sent to this address is relatively minimal.  Messages
      are sent every time the system starts up, or if the system is in
      serious trouble. On a laptop, make this <tt>root@localhost</tt>.
  </dd>
</dl>

<h3>Configuring LON-CAPA</h3>
<p>
To configure and install LON-CAPA, execute the following commands:
</p>
<pre>
cd /root/loncapa-X.Y.Z     (X.Y.Z should correspond to a version number like '2.11.3')
./UPDATE
</pre>
<p>
You will need to enter the LON-CAPA configuration information you determined
in the previous section.
</p>

<h2>6. <a name="cdc">Creating a Domain Coordinator</a></h2>
<p>
You will need at least one user at your site who has the role of
'domain coordinator'.  This user creates accounts for other users and
grants them additional privileges.  The make_domain_coordinator.pl script
invoked below requires that you enter the user's password.
Feel free to use the "passwd username" command to change it later.
Replace USERNAME and DOMAIN with an appropriate user name and your domain.
</p>
<pre>
cd /root/loncapa-X.Y.Z/loncom/build
perl make_domain_coordinator.pl USERNAME DOMAIN
</pre>

<h2>7. <a name="sts">Start/Restart Services</a></h2>
<p>
The LON-CAPA network services take a moment to start.  Most misconfigurations
will be apparent at this step.
</p>
<pre>
/home/httpd/perl/loncontrol start
systemctl start apache2
</pre>
<p>
If you receive warnings when starting apache2 about missing perl modules,
please make sure you followed the instructions in
<b>Installing LON-CAPA Dependencies</b>.  If you still have errors, please
contact the LON-CAPA group.
</p>

<h2>8. <a name="log">Log in to your LON-CAPA Machine</a></h2>
<p>
Point a web browser at your new machine and log in as the domain
coordinator.  Congratulations!
</p>

<hr>
<h2>If things aren't working right</h2>
<p>
If you've followed the steps above and the server doesn't start or you think 
there's something wrong, please contact the LON-CAPA helpdesk.
Installation/update support is available from: helpdesk at loncapa.org
(replace " at " with @).
If there were errors in installation of the dependency RPMs or errors during the
automatic setup, please send us as much information as possible.
If some part of this document is unclear please let us know.
</p>